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A stack of 59 3 second images taken with the Pentax M300/4 green star at F whatever the first stop is right after F/4. Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor
An image in Ha RGB
This nebula according to Glaxy Map
is
"GRS 305.40 +00.20 (Kes 18), often named simply G305, is a major star formation region associated with several HII regions, the star clusters Danks 1 and Danks 2, an estimated 31 O stars and the Wolf-Rayet star WR 48a. It may be one of the most massive star formation regions known in the Milky Way"
Location : Bortle 6
Equipment
Sharpstar z4/Antlia 3 nm Ha filter/ Antlia Triband RGB filter/ZWO 533 Mm pro -for H-alpha /6/533 MC pro for RGB colour/ASIAIR/HEQ5/ASIAIR
Data
just under one and a half hours in RGB (5 minute subs)
3 hours in Ha (10 minute subs)
10 minutes in RGB ( 60 second subs) -for stars
Processing
stacked in AstroPixelProcessor, processed in PixInsight
Processing Notes
Ha and RGB separately
Stack
register Ha, RGB long and RGB short stacks
Dynamic Crop
Gradient Correction
Blur X -correction
Image Solver
SPCC
Starnet++
Nebula
BlurX
NoiseX
GHS
NoiseX
Curves Transformation
Stars
SetiAstro star stretch script
Curves Transformation after applying a luminance mask
Stars and starless combined with Pixelmath
Minor tweaking including a final crop - in Photoshop CS6
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy
Equipment:
Celestron AVX
Baader Moon and Sky Glow with IR cut filter
ES ED 102 FCD 100 Scope
SSAG Cope and Camera
ZWO 183mc Pro
Pegasus Focus Cube
Software:
SGP Acquisition
Sharp Cap - Initial Focus and Polar Align
AstropixelProcessor for stacking and initial stretch
Finished in Photoshop
I'll have to look to see how much integration, 3-minute subs for sure though.
The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a spiral galaxy approximately 780 kiloparsecs (2.5 million light-years) from Earth, and the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. The galaxy's name stems from the area of the Earth's sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda.
The Veil Nebula
NGC6960, 6974, 6979, 6992, 6995
*** 1st edit in HOS-palette ***
Shooting Location :
* 51° N 3° E
* bortle class 6 backyard
Object Information
* Type : Supernova Remnant
* Magnitude : 7
* Location (J2000.0): RA 20h 45m 00s / DEC +30° 42' 00"
* Approximate distance : 460 parsecs / 1500 lightyears
Hardware
* Mount : Celestron CGX
* Imaging Scope : Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM II @ 135mm
* Imaging Camera : ZWO ASI 183MM
* Filter Wheel : ZWO EFW 7*36mm + Baader Ha 7nm, Baader OIII 8.5nm & Baader SII 8.5nm
*Guide Scope : Sky-Watcher StarTravel 80
* Guide Camera : ZWO ASI 120MM
Exposures
* Single Exposure Length : 120sec
* Sensor Temperature : -20°C
* Gain : 111
* Offset : 10
* Light Frames :
> Baader Ha : 25x
> Baader OIII : 20x
> Baader S2 : 20x
* Flat Frames :
> Baader Ha : 25x
> Baader OIII : 25x
> Baader S2 : 25x
* Dark Frames : 30x
* Bias Frames : 100x
* Total Integration Time : 2h10m
* Capture Date : 2018-06-28
Capture Software
* Sequence Generator Pro
* PHD2 Guiding
Processing Software
* Astro Pixel Processor 1.061
* Adobe Photoshop
Processed as 'LRGBHSO' in APP.
In the constellation of Auriga.
M: iOptron EQ45-Pro
T: William Optics GTF81
C: ZWO ASI533MM-Cooled
F: L,R,G,B,Ha,Oiii & Sii
G: PHD2 & Baader FlipMirror
GC: ZWO ASI120mini
RAW16; FITs
Temp: -10 DegC
Gain 101;
L 5 x Exp 200s
R 5 x Exp 200s
G 5 x Exp 200s
B 5 x Exp 200s
Ha 5 x Exp 400s
Oiii 5 x Exp 400s
Sii 5 x Exp 400s
Frames: 30 Lights; 0 Darks; 6 flats
100% Crop
Capture: SharpCap
Processed: APP; PS
Sky: 80% Gibbous moon, breezy, minimal cloud, cold, fair seeing.
3.477 light years distant.
Gum-2 un gabbiano nello spazio, a 3260 anni luce, nella Costellazione del cane Maggiore, in questa regione molecolare, noteremo in particolare IC-2177 “la testa del Gabbiano” e i 4 ammassi stellari NGC-2335/NGC-2343/NGC/2345 e M-50 trattasi di ammassi di giovani stelle.
Setup, SkyWatcher Azgti in modalità equatoriale, ottica Jupiter 200mm, Asi2600mc, filtro Optolong L-Extreme, teleguida Svbony 30/165 camera guida Asi 120mm
Light 36x600” più Dark, Flat e DarkFlat
Tot. Integrazione ore 6:00
(Avrei voluto integrare almeno il doppio su questo astro, ma il tempo così bizzarro non lo ha permesso, sicuramente in futuro lo farò)
Acquisizione tramite dispositivo Raspberry, con pc da remoto, e applicazione Ekos.
Somma dei Light ed elaborazione tramite, AstroPixelProcessor e Pixinsight.
Livello di Bortle 7.2
Cieli sereni ✨
Date: 2020-05-23 and 05-29(2 days)
Location: Mt. Zao, Miyagi, Jpn.
Optics: Zeiss Apo sonner 135mm F2(F2.8)
Camera: Canon EOS 6D (mod)
Exposure: 120s x 32flames(23th) + 120s x 60flames(29th), ISO 1600
Processing: AstroPixelProcessor, Pixinsight, Photoshop.
Equipment
Sharpstar Z4
ZWO ASI 533 MM
HEQ5 pro
ASIAIR
Filters
Antlia 3 nm Ha
Optolong 3 nm OIII
Svbony 7nm SII
10 hours of total integration-
4 hours each in HII and OIII and 2 hours
10 minute subs
Bortle 7.6 location
imaged over several weeks in December -January 2025/26
Processed in AstroPixelProcessor and PixInsight
The star-forming nebula known as IC 1848, or the Soul Nebula (goes with the nearby Heart Nebula).72 frames, 300 sec. each.
On the clear, cool (i.e. cold) evening of 30 December 2025 I pointed my ZenithStar 81 telescope at another target I had not observed before, namely IC 443, also known as the Jellyfish Nebula.
The Jellyfish is a supernova remnant located in the constellation Gemini, approximately 5,000 light-years from Earth and is estimated to be roughly 70 light-years in size. It is notable for its complex structure and interaction with surrounding molecular clouds, and is the remains of a supernova that may have occurred around 30,000 years ago.
The bright star near the nebula is called Propus, from the Greek word for "foot" as this star lies at the foot of the constellation Gemini. It is also designated as η Geminorum (eta Geminorum). It is a variable and multiple giant star in the constellation of Gemini. It is a relatively cool (3500K) orange red giant about 300 times the radius of the Sun which is almost the orbit of Venus.
~~~~~
Telescope: William Optics ZenithStar 81 APO
Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus 256G
Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C
Filter:Optolong L-eNhance filter
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini guidecam
Guide via: William Optics Refractor 50/200 mm
Stacked from:
Lights: 65 at 180 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Darks: 30 at 180 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Flats: 30 at 8.9 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Dark Flats: 30 at 8.9 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Bortle 4 sky.
SW Tools:
Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor
Processed in PixInsight, stretched using Multiscale Adaptive Stretch,
Photoshop CS4 for labels.
Technical data:
Remote Observatory "FarLightTeam"
Team: Marc Valero, José Esteban, Jesús M. Vargas, Bittor Zabalegui.
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ106 ED 530mm f/5
CCDs: QSI683 wsg8
Filters: Baader Planetarium - LRGB
Mount: 10Micron GM1000 HPS
Imaging Software: Voyager
Processing Software: PixInsight-AstroPixelProcessor
Imaging Data:
Captured Between February 1 to April 30, 2022 in 6 sessions due to bad weather.
( Fregenal de la Sierra ) Badajoz, Spain.
Hosting "E-EYE Entre Encinas y Estrellas"
Image composed of:
Luminance 54 x 900" .....13,5 hours
RGB 28x300" on each channel ..... 7 hours
Total ....20,5 hours
Darks, flats, bias
Technical explanation of objects :
The Virgo cluster is a cluster of galaxies located approximately 59 ± 4 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Virgo. It contains some 1,300 known galaxies, although there may be as many as 2,000, and forms the central region of the Local Supercluster, in which the Local Group is also found. Its mass is estimated to be 1.2×1015 MS up to about 8 degrees from the center of the cluster, which is equivalent to a radius of about 2.2 Mpc.3
Many of the bright galaxies in this cluster, including the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87, were discovered in the late 1770s and early 1780s and later included in Charles Messier's catalogue. Described by Messier as starless nebulae, their true nature would not be discovered until the 1920s.
The cluster subtends a maximum arc of about 8 degrees centered on the constellation Virgo, and many of its galaxies can be seen with an amateur telescope. Its brightest member is the giant elliptical galaxy M49, but the most notable and famous is the galaxy M87, located in its center.
In the center of the image we show we have NGC 4435 and NGC 4438, also known as the Eye Galaxies or Arp 120, they are two galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, about 52 million light years from our galaxy, also visible with amateur telescopes.
NGC 4435:
NGC 4435 is a barred lenticular galaxy showing a ring of dust around the nucleus. Through studies carried out with the Spitzer telescope, a young stellar population has been detected in its center, which indicates that 190 million years ago it suffered a stellar outbreak perhaps caused by an interaction with NGC 4438, and almost all of its hot gas, according to studies. made in X-rays with the Chandra telescope, is concentrated in its central region. It also seems to have a long tail that was also thought to be produced by this event, but which is actually a system of dust clouds in our galaxy that is totally unrelated to NGC 4435.
NGC 4438:
NGC 4438 is a hard-to-classify galaxy that has been classified as both a spiral galaxy and a lenticular galaxy, which explains its inclusion in Halton C. Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. It is one of the most notable galaxies in the cluster due to its highly distorted appearance, which shows that it is undergoing or has undergone gravitational interactions, and for the unknown mechanism that causes its central region to show activity, and that it has expelled opposing gas loops at one the other. A starburst, a black hole, or an active galactic nucleus has been thought of, and all possibilities are under investigation. It also shows a low content of neutral hydrogen, perhaps due to its friction with the hot gas that fills the intergalactic medium of Virgo or with the corona of hot gas that surrounds the nearby galaxy M86 and/or due to having been torn away by gravitational attraction. of some galaxy with which it was about to collide (perhaps M86 itself), in addition to a displacement of the different components of its interstellar medium (neutral hydrogen, molecular hydrogen, hot gas, and interstellar dust, which reaches up to a distance of 4-5 kiloparsecs from its disk) in the direction of NGC 4435 -which tends to be attributed, however, to friction with the aforementioned intergalactic medium-, and finally traces of having undergone several bursts of star formation.
A pair of interacting galaxies?
NGC 4435 and NGC 4438 have been and are considered by numerous authors to be a pair of interacting galaxies, having calculated that the two galaxies came close 100 million years ago to just 16,000 light years from each other. In any case, and despite the strong evidence in favor of an interaction between the two, other scientists have expressed doubts as to whether the two galaxies are actually interacting despite their apparent proximity, since their redshifts are different and NGC 4435 is barely visible. has suffered the effects of such interaction. It has also been speculated that NGC 4438 may actually be two galaxies merging, having nothing to do with NGC 4435, which has interacted in the past with M86 (to which it seems to be joined by filaments of gas and in which it is detected certain amount of interstellar dust and atomic and ionized hydrogen that seems to come from NGC 4438, which reinforces this possibility) causing the peculiarities observed in it, that the three mentioned galaxies have interacted with each other, and even that NGC 4438 may be being torn apart by the gravity (tidal forces) of M87, which is only 58 arcminutes away from it (and seems to have gotten as close as 300 kiloparsecs).
Sky-Watcher Quattro 150P f/3.5
Player One Uranus-C OSC (Offset:10 / Gain:211 (HCG) )
SkyTech LPRO MAX filter
54 x 60sec. subs (54 mins.)
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, GraXpert and Affinity Photo
First light with a Seestar 30 pro.
This is native FOV, not a mosaic
Bortle 7.6.
UV/IR cut filter
EQ mode -mix of 10, 20 and 30 second subs- 1 hour and 35 minutes total integration
Waning Gibbous Moon
stacked in AstroPixelProcessor, processed in PixinSight and Affinity
NGC 2175, the Monkey Head Nebula (I don't see a monkey's head though), a cloud of warm hydrogen gas in the process of forming stars. 8hr total exposure. H and O: GSO 8" f/8 RC, ASI2600MM mono camera; color (stars) Explore Scientific ED102 (102mm f/7), ZWO ASI2600MC cooled color camera. processed in AstroPixelProcessor and Lightroom.
Playing around with colors to get beyond the "usual" red-blue-HOO-look. I captured this widefield of the Tulip Nebula area last year and tried different weights of Ha and OIII to bring out the Tulip as good as possible without overdoing and keep a somehow natural look.
Celestron RASA 8
Celestron Motorfocuser
IDAS NBZ Filter
EQ6-R Pro
ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro (Gain 100, Offset 18, -10°)
60 x 240 sec (4 h) Ha/OIII, 60 x 30sec RGB
N.I.N.A., Guiding with ZWO ASI 462MC and PHD2
Astropixelprocessor, Photoshop, Pixinsight
A small group of galaxies about 110 million light-years away. The reason to target this was the supernova in one of the galaxies, NGC 5915, bright enough to image with my modest equipment (about 15th magnitude). You can also see evidence of the gravitational interactions among the trio by their distorted spiral structure.
Taken from suburban Bloomnington, Indiana. Celestron Edge 8 SCT (203mm aperture f/10), 0.7x reducer/flattener, ZWO ASI294MC one-shot color and ZWO ASI2600MM monochrome cooled CMOS cameras, Losmandy GM811G mount, ASIAir controller, auto-guided. Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Lightroom, and Photoshop.
#astrophotography #deepsky #supernova #galaxies
Messier 45, also known as the Seven Sisters or the Pleiades is an Open Cluster located in Taurus. It is obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. It contains blue and luminous stars some 100 million years old. The nebula around the stars was thought to be remains of star forming, but is now considered as unrelated dust.
Object: M 45 (Pleiades)
Optics: William Megrez 72ED F6 + TS Flattener
Mount: Celestron CGEM
Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MMC @-20°C, Gain=75, Offset=15
Filter: ZWO EFW 7x36mm, ZWO 36mm Filters
Exposure: total ~0.8h, B 6x240sec + B 52x30sec, 200 Bias, 40 Darks, 50 Flats per channel
Date: 2017-11-13
Location: Schwaig
Capture: Sequence Generator Pro
Guiding: APM50 Image Master, ASI120MM, PHD2
Image Acquisition: Stephan Schurig
Image Processing: Stephan Schurig
AstroPixelProcessor 1.070: Calibration, Registration, Normalization, Integration, Background Flattening & Calibration, Auto Digital Development
Photoshop 20.0.4: Levels, Curves, Masked Nik Dfine 2 Denoise, Levels, Shadows/Highlights, Masked HighPass Sharpening, Color Balance
Remarks: This image was taken in blue channel only, it shows the ASI1600MMC diffraction pattern
A Seestar 30 pro image
NGC 3572-the Southern Tadpoles, NGC 3576-the Torch Bearer, and open clusters 3603 and 3590
RCW 56 is lurking in the bottom right corner - below the dark squiggle- surely the latter too has a name? - and the bright star Z Carina
Just over 4 hours of integration:
101*20 Seconds + 32*30 seconds +183*60 seconds
Bortle 7.6
23 % moon setting early
Stacked in AstroPixelprocessor ( which in this instance did a much better job than SIRIL my usual goto, thanks I believe to MBB)
Processed in PixInsight
Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was bright comet easyly seen with the naked eye in summer 2020. The picture is a fairly beginners shot with a DSLR showing the comet above the northern horizon around midnight.
Object: Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)
Optics: Sigma-Zoom 18-125mm @26mm F4
Mount: Tripod
Camera: Canon EOS 500D, ISO 1600
Exposure: total ~0.5h, 137x15sec, 16 Darks
Date: 2020-07-21
Location: Lillinghof
Capture: Magic Lantern
Image Acquisition: Stephan Schurig
Image Processing: Stephan Schurig
AstroPixelProcessor 2.0.0-beta4: Calibration, Registration, Normalization, Integration, Auto Digital Development
Photoshop 23.5.1: Curves, Exposure (Offset), Masked Nik Dfine 2 Denoise, Placed Foreground
Messier 74 (also known as NGC 628 and Phantom Galaxy) is a large spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces. It is about 32 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy contains two clearly defined spiral arms and is therefore used as an archetypal example of a grand design spiral galaxy. The galaxy's low surface brightness makes it the most difficult Messier object for amateur astronomers to observe. Its relatively large apparent size and the galaxy's face-on orientation make it an ideal object for astronomers who want to study spiral arm structure and spiral density waves. It is estimated that M74 hosts about 100 billion stars.
~
Telescope: Celestron C11-A XLT Schmidt Cassegrain OTA
Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus
Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C
Filter: Optolong L-Pro filter
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM Mini guidecam
Guide via: ZWO OAG
Stacked from:
Lights 110 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Darks 30 at 120 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Flat 30 at 1.1 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Dark Flat 30 at 1.1 seconds, gain 101 temp -10C
Bortle 4 sky.
Integrated the saved frames in Astro Pixel Processor.
Processed in Pixinsight
Captions added in Photoshop CS4
M81 (NGC 3031), M82 (NGC 3034), NGC 3177
47 exposures 300 sec. each.
Explore Scientific ED102 102mm f/7 apochromat refractor, Explore Scientific 1x flattener
ZWO ASI2600MC Pro cooled color CMOS camera, gain 100, -20ºC, IDAS DTD light pollution filter
ZWO EAF autofocuser
ZWO ASIAir Pro controller
iOptron CEM25P mount
auto-guided, SVBONY SV2165 30mm f/4 guide scope, ZWO ASI120MM Mini guide camera
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, Lightroom, Photoshop
Playing around in my backyard. Class 5 Bortle.
A Lightpolution filter would come in handy, but that's for the next time.
Equipment:
- Canon 450Da, Canon 300mm/f4 IS USM
(iso800, f4, 90sec)
- Skywatcher StarAdventure
This picture is made from:
69 Lights a 90sec, 71Bias, 20Flats, 30Dark.
Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor(APP) afer that in LR and PS.
Dati: 17 x 300 sec a ISO 800 -16° c + 5 dark + 25 flat e darkflat
Montatura: EQ6 pro
Ottica: Nikkor 50 mm f/2 @ f/4
Sensore: Canon 40D CentralDS
Software sviluppo: AstroPixelProcessor e Photoshop
Temperatura esterna: 2 ° C - Umidità 55%
(passaggi di nuvole e velature)
My second try at astrophotography. Using a Nikon D800, a Nikkor 500mm AI-P and a Celestron CGEM EQ mount. 30 seconds expositions, blended in Astro Pixel Processor.
Andromeda Galaxy (M31), 08/27/2020
So after I setup the big telescope last weekend I put my old Canon Rebel T5i on my small star tracker and pointed it at the Andromeda Galaxy. I’ve taken better images but they can’t all be winners. I overreached that night trying to do too many things at once. I also setup a time-lapse on yet another camera which I’ll also post soon. With so many things going on I totally forgot to take the calibration frames that were needed for this image. Next time I go out imaging, I’ll limit myself to only one deep-space image and one time-lapse or maybe super wide-angle setup.
Equipment:
Canon T5i
Skywatcher Star Adventure
Tamron 70-200 @ 200mm
Astronomik CLS clip-in filter
Details:
Location – Buck Creek Campground, WA
Bortle Class 3
ISO 3200
58 60-second Lights
0 Darks
0 Bias
0 Flats
Astro Pixel Processor
Lightroom
Photoshop
#astrophotography #astronomy #comos #nightphotography #space #telescope #deepsky #asi294mcpro #amateurastronomy #backyardastronomy #asiair #asiairpro #celestronrasa #celestron #astropixelprocessor #optolong #telescope #astronomyphotography #deepskyobject #zwo #longexposurephotography #m31 #andromedagalaxy
The Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946)
A spectacular view of a dramatic spiral galaxy seen through a mass of stars from our own Milky Way Galaxy. It took the light from this galaxy 22 million years to get here. I'm glad it was a clear night.
It gets its name, Fireworks galaxy because of the number of Supernova explosions that have been reported in the galaxy. In the last century alone, at least 10 supernovae have been detected in the galaxy. N.A.S.A.
It is also known as a Starburst Galaxy galaxy due to the number of new stars being created.
ZWO ASIAIR Pro
ZWO ASI 533MC Pro
ZWO EAF
Celestron C11-A XLT (not Edge HD)
SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
Tracking but no guiding. I haven't been able to get the guide camera in focus either with OAG or separate guidescope yet so I restricted my captured to 30 seconds each to keep the stars round.
Captured in Live View, saving every frame:
85 Lights at 30 seconds, gain 100, temp -10C
20 Darks at 30 seconds, gain 100, temp -10C
40 Bias at 10.0ms, gain 100, temp -10C
Bortle 4 sky and a generic light pollution filter.
Integrated in Astro Pixel Processor and adjusted in Photoshop CS4.
First image for the new season of astro dark here in Scotland, 4 hours of unfiltered OSC data from my back garden in bortle 4 skies, there was a moon but as this target was at 70+ deg elevation the moon did not interfere in any way. The subs were integrated with AstroPixelProcessor and processed in Pixinsight.
The Iris Nebula (also known as NGC 7023 and Caldwell 4) is a faint reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus. The nebula is illuminated by a bright central star designated HD 200775. It lies 1,300 light-years away and is six light-years across.
Integration : No filter : 48×300″ : 4h
16 Aug 2025 ,47% Moon
Imaging equipment
Telescope : William Optics Redcat 61
Camera : ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Mount : ZWO AM5
Software :
Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP)
Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight
Russell Croman Astrophotography BlurXTerminator
Russell Croman Astrophotography NoiseXTerminator
Russell Croman Astrophotography StarXTerminator
ZWO ASIAIR
Sky-Watcher Quattro 150P f/3.5
Player One Uranus-C OSC (Offset:10 / Gain:100)
UV/IR filter
35 x 135sec. subs (78 mins.)
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, StarNet and Affinity Photo
IC 1848, as known as Soul Nebula, is an emission nebula locatel in the constellation of Cassiopeia; far 7500 years light from the solar system. It conforms a great stars formation region, with visible huge extensions of ionized and excited gas. Soul nebula is integrated by many open star clusters, an intense radio source called W5 and by huge bubbles formed by the intense winds coming from massive young stars. W5 integrates large cavities that were carved out by radiation and winds from the region’s most massive stars, pushing gas together and causing it to ignite into successive generations of new stars. Dense large pillars of material can be seen around the nebula structure, pillars of around 10 light years with stars forming into them.
This image is taken through Ha, SII and OIII filters, and mapped in post-process as a variation of the SHO palette. Because of this, we can see differenciated areas, depending on the signal received. Hydrogen Alpha, Sulfur double ionized or Oxygen triple ionized. The narrowband astrophotography allows us to detect different chemical compositions of the ionized gas emited by the nebulas.
Technical data:
Remote Observatory "FarLightTeam"
Team: Jesús M. Vargas, Bittor Zabalegui,José Esteban, Marc Valero.
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ106 ED 530mm f/5
CCDs: QSI683 wsg8
Filters: Baader Planetarium - Halpha-SII-OIII
Mount: 10Micron GM1000 HPS
Imaging Software: Voyager
Processing Software: PixInsight-AstroPixelProcessor
Captured through 12 December 2021 to 21 February 2022, ( Fregenal de la Sierra ) Badajoz, Spain.
Processing: Marc Valero
Image composed by a Mosaic of 2 tiles:
Ha: 94x1200"
This is a Ha RGB image with a Samyang 135 - a two panel mosaic
About 4 hours of integration in Ha and 7 hours in RGB with an triband filter from a Bortle 7.6 backyard- total integration of 11 hours and 55 minutes. 64% moon on average.
I started this project way back in 2023 when I first collected the Ha data, but only got around to capturing the colour data in June of 2025. To be completely honest, I got tired of waiting for an opportunity to do so from a darker site!
Stacked individual panels in Ha and RGB
Mosaic assembled in AstroPixelProcessor and RGB and Ha data registered and aligned also in APP
Processed in PixInsight-usual workflow -roughly as follows
Dynamic Crop (RGB and Ha ; re-registered in APP after crop)
BlurX correct
ADBE
astrometric solution for RGB
SPCC for RGB
Starnet++
GHS
NoiseX
Histogram transformation
Combined Ha with RGB using the PixinSight script
Minor adjustment in Photoshop CS6 to finish
Samyang 135mm/ ZWO ADI 533 MM/ZWO ASI 533 MC/Antlia 3nm H Alpha Filter/Antlia triband filter/ AM3/ASIAIRMINI
The Flickr photo of IC 4592 is a true color image of the nebula. The Blue Horsehead Nebula is located in the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion. IC 4592 is classified as a reflection nebula. The nebula resembles the head and upper neck of a horse with the eye represented by the blue star Nu (ν) Scorpii. The main and brightest star in this multiple star system is a main sequence B-type, blue-white, extremely hot star. IC 4592 is about 400 light years from Earth. The light captured to form the Flickr photo left the nebula in the early 18th century for its 400 year journey to Earth.
The reflection nebula is produced by blue light from a star being scattered by adjacent interstellar dust clouds that makes them visible to the camera sensors of a astrographs as bluish structures that form the nebula. The Flickr photo shows the large amount of brownish dust clouds that fills this region of interstellar space.
The technical information that specifies the imaging aspects behind the production of the Flickr photo is as follows.
•Telescope Live remote network AUS-2 astrograph
•The AUS-2 astrograph is located at Heaven’s Mirror Observatory, Australia
•AUS-2 consists of a Takahashi 106ED f/3.6 telescope and a FLI 16083 CCD camera
•AUS-2 uses AstroDon Generation II Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue wideband filters
•Calibrated imaging data was acquired and curated by Telescope Live
•The calibrated image data was processed on my home PC
•58 six-hundred second exposures were taken using wideband filters
•Total exposure time was 9 hours and 40 minutes
•Processing software: Astro Pixel Processor, PixInsight, and Affinity Photo 2
Hercules Cluster (M13), 05/24/2020
This is the Great Cluster in the Constellation of Hercules. It is about 25,00 light years away. There are hundreds of thousands of stars packed into an area 145 light-years in diameter.
I got to do a little imaging while I was up at my friend’s place. It was one of those nights where nothing was going right or easy. Most likely because we where partying and laughing like fools. Astrophotography and bourbon do not mix well. LOL. In fact, I did not think this image would work at all and I almost did not even bother to process it.
Equipment:
RASA 8
CGEM-dx mount
ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
ZWO Asiair
Details:
Location – Ahsahka, ID
Bortle Class 4
60 60-second Lights
60 Darks
60 Bias
40 Flats
Deep Sky Stacker
Star Tools
Lightroom
Photoshop
#astrophotography #astronomy #comos #nightphotography #space #telescope #deepsky #asi294mcpro #amateurastronomy #backyardastronomy #asiair #rasa #celestron #astropixelprocessor #telescope #astronomyphotography #deepskyobject #zwo #longexposurephotography #m13 #Herculescluster
The Horsehead Nebula (IC434), 01/23/2021
I seem to always be whining about the PNW weather but dam! It has quite literally been five months since the last time I was able to image. For two nights in a row the clouds cleared just long enough for me to set up my equipment before the they would roll back in and I had to tear it all down again. Then, on the third night there was a clear window for four whole hours. I jumped on it, and being a stubborn SOB paid off. I was finally able to play with the new fancy-ass telescope mount my wife bought me for Christmas, it was awesome! I’m pretty happy with this image even though it has less than two hours of data. Maybe someday soon I’ll be able to sink some real time into this object and truly be able to pull out some detail.
Equipment:
RASA 8
iOptron GEM45
ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
ZWO Asiair
Optolong L-eNhance filter
Details:
Location – My driveway
Bortle Class 7
51 120-second Lights
60 Darks
60 Dark flats
60 Flats
Deep Sky Stacker
Astro Pixel Processor
Lightroom
Photoshop
#astrophotography #astronomy #comos #nightphotography #space #telescope #deepsky #asi294mcpro #amateurastronomy #backyardastronomy #asiair #asiairpro #celestronrasa #celestron #ioptron #ioptrongem45 #astropixelprocessor #optolong #telescope #astronomyphotography #deepskyobject #zwo #longexposurephotography #ic434 #horseheadnebula
Commonly called the Pleiades or Seven Sisters, M45 is an open star cluster. It contains over a thousand stars that are loosely bound by gravity, but it is visually dominated by a handful of its brightest members.
The nearly straight, blue-white wisps are streams of large dust particles. As the cloud moves toward Merope, its smaller dust particles are slowed down by the star’s radiation pressure more than the larger particles are. The large dust particles continue on toward the star while the smaller particles are left behind.
The Pleiades cluster has been observed since ancient times, so it has no known discoverer. However, Galileo Galilei, the Italian scientist best known for discovering the largest moons of Jupiter and championing a heliocentric model of the solar system, was the first to observe the Pleiades through a telescope. M45 is located an average distance of 445 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus.
Equipment Used
Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 81 APO
Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus
Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at gain 101, temperature -10C
Filter: ZWO UV/IR Cut filter
Focal reducer: William Optics 0.8x 2.00"
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini guidecam
Guide Scope: William Optics 50mm
Stacked from:
Lights 19 at 300s, gain 101, temp -10C
Darks 30 at 300s, gain 101, temp -10C
Flats 30 at 150ms, gain 101, temp -10C
DarkFlats 30 at 150ms, gain 101 temp -10C
Bortle 4 sky.
Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor and adjusted in Photoshop CS4 and Topaz DeNoise AI
On the clear, cool (i.e. cold) evening of 30 December 2025 I pointed my ZenithStar 81 telescope at a target I had not observed before, namely Sharpless 2-261, also known as Lower's Nebula.
It is a faint emission nebula located in the constellation Orion. Sh2-261 is an ionised hydrogen region energised by the ultraviolet radiation of nearby hot stars. This nebula lies roughly 3,300 light-years from Earth and spans about 50 light-years in diameter. Observations in radio and infrared wavelengths have revealed dense pockets of gas and dust within the nebula, indicating ongoing star formation. The primary ionising source is believed to be a massive, hot star whose intense ultraviolet radiation excites the surrounding hydrogen gas, causing it to emit the characteristic red glow.
The nebula is called "Lower's Nebula" in honour of Harold Lower, an American amateur astronomer and astrophotographer, who first photographed it in 1939 using a homemade 6-inch telescope. His discovery was notable because, at the time, most deep-sky objects were catalogued by professional observatories. Yet Lower managed to capture this faint nebula from his backyard, much like I did, but I had the advantage of finding it in my star catalogue.
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Telescope: William Optics ZenithStar 81 APO
Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
Controller: ZWO ASIAIR Plus 256G
Main Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro at -10C
Filter:Optolong L-eNhance filter
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini guidecam
Guide via: William Optics Refractor 50/200 mm
Stacked from:
Lights: 52 at 180 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Darks: 30 at 180 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Flats: 30 at 8.9 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Dark Flats: 30 at 8.9 seconds, gain 101, temp -10C
Bortle 4 sky.
SW Tools:
Stacked in AstroPixelProcessor
Processed in PixInsight, stretched using Multiscale Adaptive Stretch,
Photoshop CS4 for labels.
Slightly different camera settings than previously and with UV/IR filter.
Sky-Watcher Quattro 150P f/3.5
Player One Uranus-C OSC (Offset:20 / Gain:90)
UV/IR filter
75 x 140sec. subs (2hr 55mins.)
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor, GraXpert and Affinity Photo
Ioptron CEM 25p
W/O Zenithstar 73 + flattner
ASI 533MC pro
W/O Uniguide 50mm
ASI 120mini
ZWO EFW
Duo Narrowband filter
ASIair pro controlled
19x5min (total time: 1,6h)
Darks + Flats
Post-processed #astropixelprocessor, PS and LR
A star-formation region in the Milky Way NGC 7380 in the constellation Cepheus, sometimes known as the Wizard Nebula, imaged in the light of hydrogen.
Multiple exposures, 300 sec. each. GSO 8" f/8 RC OTA, ZWO ASI2600MM Pro cooled monochrome CMOS camera, SVBONY H-alpha 7nm filter, Losmandy GM811G mount, ZWO ASIAir Plus controller, auto-guided. Processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Lightroom.